Sherrington: Tech's Kliff Kingsbury has much to prove, but risk might be worth it

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Scott Audetter/Associated Press

College career: Despite a celebrated high school career, Kingsbury was recruited without much fanfare in the final years of Spike Dykes’ tenure at Texas Tech. Kingsbury sat out his first year and saw limited action as a redshirt freshman in 1999. But it wasn’t until Dykes retired and Mike Leach was named head coach in 2000 that Kingsbury exploded onto the scene. Kingsbury averaged 608 passing attempts a season as Tech’s starter, throwing 95 career touchdowns and 12,429 career passing yards. That currently sits 15th all time in FBS history and second in the Tech record books, behind Graham Harrell.

Kirby Hocutt just hired a football coach who’s only 33 and has five years in coaching, total, a bet even your bookie might advise against.

On the other hand, as a Big 12 official put it Wednesday, Kliff Kingsbury is “charismatic,” ranks among the game’s top young guns, and, perhaps most importantly, comes complete with a grace period.

Naming one of Texas Tech’s own — and a protégé of the Pirate, at that — heals the school’s dysfunctional family just in time for the holidays. It also may give Kingsbury time to grow into the job.

And then there’s this: Hocutt can be reasonably assured the kid won’t get up from dinner and never come back.

Tommy Tuberville bears the distinction of that farewell, which may be a first. He reportedly excused himself to go to the bathroom while dining with recruits at the 50-Yard Line, a Lubbock landmark, and promptly went AWOL. The next thing anyone knew, he was pumping his fist at a Cincinnati news conference and making like the Big East was a destination conference.

Confession: Maybe I should have told you sooner that Tuberville wasn’t wild about Lubbock. I’d no sooner shaken his hand in his office a few weeks before his debut when he made some disparaging remarks about the weather in West Texas. I thought he was kidding. Mike Leach loved it. He even worked in a couple of forecasts on the local news. He’d get up during meetings when a dust storm boiled up outside his office windows and marvel at nature’s ways, much to the consternation of his assistants.

Tuberville was no amateur meteorologist, which I guess I should have picked up on. Still, who complains about his new digs before all the boxes are unpacked?

Tuberville was a bad fit from the start, which, I must also confess, I never saw coming. He certainly suffered in comparison with the Pirate, who, with all his warts, had a mesmerizing effect on most Tech fans. Tuberville merely confounded them with not-so-subtle comments and odd conduct on the sidelines. Worse, he didn’t win much, either. In fact, you could gather that he thought his prospects of winning so dismal, he left a season or two ahead of the posse.

Give Hocutt credit: Instead of sitting around in shock, wondering how a coach could leave the Big 12 for the sinking Big East, he went out and made just about the most popular hire possible.

What that means is he couldn’t get Art Briles, who apparently asked for the Panhandle. Sonny Dykes, another favorite son, had just taken the job at Cal. Chad Morris, Clemson’s offensive coordinator, was an attractive candidate. He’s put on offensive shows, and he’s been a Texas high school football coach, as well. Never underestimate the value of high school connections.

But Morris wouldn’t have exactly made the fan base giddy. Kingsbury does, in spades.

Besides the local attraction, he’s done a bang-up job in his short term as a coach. The offensive success has been astounding. He’ll have to prove he can do it once out from under Kevin Sumlin’s shadow. He’ll also have to show he can work with lesser talent. He’s had Case Keenum and Johnny Manziel. One rewrote the NCAA record book, and the other was the first freshman to win the Heisman. You can draw up all the pretty schemes you want, but if you don’t have players, it’s just graffiti.

Of course, Kingsbury is well aware of what it takes to win. After the Aggies’ opening loss to Florida this year, in which Manziel’s fairly strong debut was drowned out in the postgame news conference by reporters’ questions about another double-digit lead blown to smithereens, Kingsbury put it into perspective for us. He said Manziel made a few mistakes, but he also said he was going to make a lot of great plays before he was through at Texas A&M.

If he’s as good projecting the potential of Tech’s next starting quarterback, the joy of Raider fans is justified.

His offense will remind them of the Pirate, and he’s smart, but that’s as far as the similarities go. He’s polished, and he won’t get into any rhubarbs.

Hocutt would probably feel a lot more comfortable if he’d had a few more seasons under his belt, but, really, it was an easy hire. He won’t have to sell it to Tech fans, that’s for sure.

He won’t have to sell West Texas to the new guy, either. Reminds of the time Lou Holtz, then Arkansas’ coach, told Johnny Carson that Fayetteville wasn’t the end of the world, “but you can see it from there.” Pretty soon, he didn’t have a view at all.

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About Kevin Sherrington

Kevin Sherrington, a general sports columnist, was born in Dallas and grew up in Houston. He has worked at five newspapers in Texas. He has worked at The Dallas Morning News since 1985. He had no idea his career would come to blogging.